An ancillary study of participants in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial suggests that ingestion of bovine lactoferrin promotes expression of interferon alpha in the human colon

Studies using animal models have demonstrated that ingestion of bovine lactoferrin (bLF) is able to induce cytokine expression in the intestine and inhibit carcinogenesis in the colon and other organs of experimental animals. Consequently, a clinical trial was conducted in the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan to determine whether ingestion of bLF affected the growth of colorectal polyps in humans. The Tokyo-trial found that ingestion of 3.0 g bLF suppressed the growth of colorectal polyps and increased the level of serum human lactoferrin in participants 63 years old or younger. The present study is a complementary study to the Tokyo-trial to determine if a change in the expression of one or more cytokines could be detected in the colon of the Tokyo-trial participants after ingesting bLF. We found that daily ingestion of 3.0 g bLF promoted the expression of interferon alpha in the colon of the Tokyo-trial participants.